Building an R1 Powered Seven: Holiday 'Brake'

Building an R1 Powered Seven

A few years ago I got it in my head to build a kit car. After months of searching I came across the Locost concept. In short, quite a few amateur hobbiests around the world have built their own Lotus 7 inspired cars from scratch, following plans available on a variety of Internet sites and published in a book by Ron Champion.

I started gathering parts and finally began building the chassis in July '05. In August '10 the car was titled, licensed and is now street legal. The following blog captures the progress of the build and driving experiences after completion.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Holiday 'Brake'

Finished the first project for the holiday...fabricating a sheet metal brake. The brake should come in handy for the long bends on the sides of the seven, and for the sheet metal on the next project (http://nissan2hummer.blogspot.com/) if I decide to take it on ...

The design is based on plans I found online, with a few small modifications:(http://www.ch601.org/tools/bendbrake/brakeplans.pdf)

It took about 8 hrs total to fabricate, with most of the time spent drilling, riveting and preping the metal for paint. Tomorrow I'll pick up a few sheets of aluminum and give it a try. Here's a quick video demo:

As expected, time is flying by. I'll be happy if I can get the seat mounts in place and get started on the bodywork before heading back to work next Tuesday...